Kids parade in 1961 came with firecrackers, tricycles, homemade flags

Former Clarksville resident John Quick shared this reminiscence of how the Fourth of July was spent on Stafford Street when he was growing up in the early 1960s.

It was the Fourth of July. It was hot, always was and was never not. July’s sultry heat grabbed and clung to everyone. We couldn’t run from it; never even crossed our mind. We never ran for any reason, not in July. We only lingered, lingered and dreamed of breezes blowing through the shade while sipping iced tea or homemade lemonade.

We avoided the noonday sun as we would a patch of poison ivy; both would leave blisters on the bottom of our feet. Not that children along Stafford Street always walked around barefooted all summer. Though certainly not children of privilege, we had shoes. But, more often than not, temperature presided over propriety, except when it was time for a parade.

The photo was taken in 1961, as we assembled for our annual Fourth of July parade. As leader of the rascals, my cousin Billy decorated his bike with a handmade banner and reluctantly allowed the girls to fill the front basket with dolls and stuffed animals.

His twin sister, Martha, displayed her baton twirling skills or lack thereof. My sister Nancy carried her own handmade flag attached to a small severed limb from a neighbor’s forsythia bush.

With my impeccable sense of rhythm, I was in charge of the percussion. My family didn’t own a bicycle, so my sister Linda had the dubious honor of bringing up the rear on an oversized tricycle.

At precisely 10 o’clock, Billy ignited a handful of Dixie Boy firecrackers. My drumming became a continuation of the raucous noise, which served to bring our neighbors out the door and onto their front porches, for even a humble procession deserves an audience. We paraded up and down the sidewalk several times, from the corner of Greenwood to Gracey Avenue, welcomed by waving hands and generous applause.

Everyone along Stafford Street knew the Fourth of July had begun. Eating cold watermelon and homemade ice cream, and watching fireworks blaze across the evening sky, that would all come later. On our street, Independence Day began with a parade.